The United States Constitution is the main legislative document of the entire country which defines the major principles of American democracy, rights and duties of all Americans and people living in the territory of the country. In fact, the US Constitution is the backbone of American democracy that defines practically all spheres of life of American people, including politics, social and economic relations. Even though, at first glance, the US Constitution does not produce any impact on business since it does really regulate business relations between people, but the major principles and human rights which are postulated in this historical document affect consistently economic activities and produce a significant impact on business. In this respect, it is necessary to remember that, along with the US Constitution, there is a variety of laws which regulate economic relations and business in the US, establishing common rules and norms for business, but all these laws should necessarily meet the US Constitution. Otherwise, they would be simply illegal as they would contradict to the Constitution.

First of all, it should be said that the US Constitution should be viewed as the major law which actually defines the life of the entire American society. In such a context, it is simply unthinkable that business could function independently from the norms of the US Constitution. At the same time, it is important to underline that the US Constitution rather sets the rules of the game than directly regulates business and economic development of the country. What is meant here is the fact that the US Constitution provides all citizens of the US with equal rights and these rights, at least formally, cannot be violated by any means.

In this respect, it should be pointed out that the US Constitutions actually gives all Americans the right and opportunity to develop their own business and business should not be actually limited by any other state regulations as long as the business does not affect negatively other members of American society. This means that, in accordance with the American Constitution, the major principle that business is guided by is the harmless principle, i.e. the idea of the avoidance of harm to citizens of the US in the result of some business activities.

At this point, it is possible to refer to some laws and legal acts that regulated credit system of the US. For instance, the Truth-in-Lending Act of 1969 was introduced to insure that borrowers received adequate and full information about conditions of borrowing money in banks and other financial institutions (Volti, 2005). Obviously, this act meets the principle that could be found in the US Constitution, the principle of avoidance of harm to property and well-being of other Americans. It is worth mentioning the fact that this Act consistently affected the development of business because the entire system of lending and borrowing money had to be changed. In fact, before the introduction of this Act, some banks hided the full information about the quantity of money borrowers should pay them off. As a result, people were simply deceived and used services of banks, which managed to make the best to customers, while after the Act, banks should provide the full information to customers. Consequently, some of banks, which hided full information, had lost a considerable part of their customers.

However, there are probably much more important rules and principles that should be taken into consideration by businessmen and that are defined by the US Constitution. In this respect, it is necessary to remind the principle of equality of all people. In actuality, this means that all Americans have equal rights and opportunities to exercise their rights, including the right to develop their business and get richer, which is a normal activity as any other. It should be said that the idea of equality is very important and it is worth mentioning the fact in the past equal rights of all Americans were rather formal than real because African Americans, for instance, as well as women were often deprived of opportunities to fully exercise their rights. For instance, they could not get higher education or well-paid job that naturally affected the development of business, which was predominantly male and white. In the second half of the 20th century the situation has starting to change and nowadays, in accordance with Constitutional norms and due to the application of the Labor Code, for instance, all people does have equal rights and they cannot be discriminated (Boland, 2002). For instance, a person cannot be fired or fail to get a job because of his ethnicity or sex. In fact, the Labor Code regulates relations between employees and employers and, what is more important, it makes employers responsible for the violation of rights of employees, including discrimination, within organizations.

Naturally, this makes businessmen more concerned about their employees that cannot fail to affect the development of business.

Thus, it is obvious that the US Constitution and legal norms and regulations produce a profound impact on business.